‘AGE IS IN YOUR MIND’ : Margaret Miller Is 60 Years Old, but It Hasn’t Stopped Her From Running 75 Miles a Week, and Beating the Pants Off Everyone in Her Age Group With Five World-Best Times

Margaret Miller bounces along when she runs, her short brown hair flopping up and down like a beagle pup’s ears. Her stride resembles that of a youngster chasing an ice cream truck-- boing, boing, boing. And even though the marathoner has plenty of spring in her legs, she’s more like an old hen than a spring chicken.

Miller, who turned 60 last December, has the distinction of being the world’s fastest grandma. She has six grandchildren and can whip all of them. Since March, she has set five world-best times in the women’s 60-and-over age group at 1,500 meters, 3,000 meters, 5 kilometers, 15 kilometers and 20 kilometers.

Currently, she is training for the Twin Cities Marathon, which runs from Minneapolis to St. Paul in October. If everything goes according to plan, Miller said, she’ll knock that race off in record time--and pick up a few grand in prize money. All of which beats the bejeebers out of knitting socks, she said.

The walls of Miller’s house in Thousand Oaks are covered with photographs and medals, ribbons and trophies won in races from Japan to England. The 5-3, 100-pound runner has competed in the Boston Marathon three times. In 1980 she finished the course in just more than three hours. This year she said she ran it in a “casual” 3:23. She’s also raced in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego and El Paso.

Among the trophies displayed on her dining room wall is a plaque that reads: “There’s nothing wrong with the younger generation that 20 years won’t cure.”

Twenty years has cured this grand dame’s distance running. She took up the sport at 41, when her daughter’s track coach, Bill Anderson, told her to either stop complaining about his coaching or start running herself.

Miller climbed onto the track. She’s been complaining and racing ever since.

She quit her job as an accountant to make time for her running. In the early 1970s, Mihaly Igloi, who was the coach of the Santa Monica Track Club, wanted Miller’s daughter, Jan, to run for his club. The old lady could come along, too.

As it turned out, Jan folded and Margaret flourished. “He was training my daughter for the ’72 Olympics,” Miller said. “There was too much pressure on Jan. But I loved the discipline. Igloi was a strict disciplinarian. He didn’t put up with any nonsense. We used to run with tears running down our faces.”

When she was 47, Margaret entered her first track meet, at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, in 1973. She was 25 years older than anyone in her event, the mile. “The other girls were lapping me,” Miller said. “I came in last. But the crowd went wild. When I crossed the finish line, everyone was cheering. I thought, ‘This is for me.’ ”

Miller worked the hills around Thousand Oaks, chugging up and down the Conejo Valley. She entered events and then basked in glory as she crossed the finish line oldest--and lastest. Finally, at 49, she won her first race. “I don’t even know who I beat--just some young girls at Royal High School,” she said. At 49, though, a win was a win.

The next year, 1976, she ran in her first marathon, at Mission Bay in San Diego. She finished 10th with a time of 3:19--a world best for the 50-and-over age group. When Miller went on to set world-best times in the 10K, 15K and 20K races, she gained international acclaim.

A fact not lost on Nike or Adidas. The shoe companies alternately agreed to supply Miller with running clothes and shoes. They wanted grandma in their camp.

Eino Rompannen, who coached distance runners Ed Mendoza, Stan Mavis and Chuck Smead, began coaching Miller in 1978. Said Rompannen: “You could say Margaret is a freak of nature, but she isn’t really. She just put in the work. She was training on the same schedule that I had world-class male athletes on. She ran more than 100 miles a week. She beat women who were 10 years younger.”

Not to mention a lot of men.

Surprisingly, Miller has managed to stay relatively injury-free. Seven years ago, she suffered plantar fasciitis, a prevalent problem among distance runners caused by the overextension of tendons in the foot. Recently, she has had other foot troubles, stemming from an odd mishap--she tripped over a display stand while walking through a drug store.

She has gone to a stiffer shoe and changed her stride from a heel-to-toe style to a sort of flat-footed prance to deal with the latest ailment. Still, she hasn’t lost much to time, as her five world bests this year indicate.

“Winning is more important to me,” she said, “than setting records. If anyone is 60 years old, I want to beat them.” But when pressed, the Geritol flier admits, “Aw, I am a little gung-ho on records right now because, well, you know, I want to get them while I’m young.”

Compared to whom? Bob Hope?

Some of Miller’s friends insist that she cut out all the shenanigans and start acting her age. Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry, who met Miller years ago while the team was in town for training camp--and who since has become a regular summer jogging partner--tried to tell her once that she couldn’t run forever. After suffering one of her foot injuries, Miller said Landry told her, “You’ll never be able to run fast again.”

Undaunted, Miller refused to believe it. She says now, “When I run past him, I go, ‘Ha, ha,’ and keep on running.” In your face, pard’.

Although Miller said she’s been lucky to keep healthy enough to run, she has learned to be careful. In 1980, she noticed that runner Grete Waitz never stretched before a race. When Miller asked Waitz about it, she told her to jog around to loosen up before a race and stretch afterward. “I’ve been doing it that way ever since,” she said.

While in Boston this year, Ingrid Kristiansen, who holds world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and a world-best time in the marathon, told Miller her road times would improve if she worked out on the track. Miller took the advice and proceeded to break the age-group world records in the 1,500 and 3,000 meters this summer at a Los Angeles Unified School District all-comers meet at Birmingham High.

Miller keeps a rigorous training schedule that consists of an 18-mile run every week, mile intervals, and three miles of 50-yard dashes. She also works out in a pool three times a week. While training for the Twin Cities, she is averaging 6:20 miles. To run the marathon in 3 hours, 10 minutes, Miller would have to average a 6:45 mile.

“I used to do a total of 90 miles a week,” she said, somewhat dejectedly, “but I’ve cut back to 75 now.” What would the grandkids say?

Recently, Maggie--as she is widely known in the track world--sighed as she looked around at the trophies scattered all over her house, knowing that the years are finally catching up. “I’ve had a wee bit of fun doing this. I think I’ve had a leprechaun looking out for me,” she said in a soft voice that hints of her birthplace, Scotland. “A lot of people have told me that I’m an inspiration to them. Age is in your mind. Ruth Goldfarb is an inspiration to me. She’s 84 and she’s still running marathons. Someday, I’m going to write a book and call it ‘Forever Young.’

Until then, Miller plans to break some more records, starting in Minneapolis. The lady from Glasgow said she’ll prepare for that marathon, mind ya, the way she always has, including a peculiar pre-race ritual of taking a little bourbon and Seven-Up. She is, after all, still a Scot at heart.

One of her favorite sayings from the old country reads: “Here’s tae yi--wha’s like yi damn the yin.” Or, in English, “Here’s to you, there’s no one in the world like you.”

Och aye, bonnie wee lass. The other day, before running off to do some speed work, Maggie said: “You know, running makes me feel like I want to dance. I expect to keep running until I fall down and die. To die running would be pretty good.”